Maggie: Diary #2

California Diaries #8

by Ann M. Martin, Jeanne Betancourt

Maggie's weight-consciousness truly takes a turn for the self-destructive when she decides she can only be happy if she reduces her weight from 103 to 90 pounds, recording every bite of food she takes in her journal.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Middle Grade, Contemporary, Childrens, Mental Health, Diary

134 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[Heather]

I don't think it's really fair for me to give this a star review. I happened to find this one lying around and, knowing it was a spin-off of BSC (which I loved when I was 8), I wanted to see how it was. But I'm well above the target audience. I was well above the target audience when it was originally published. So I don't feel like I can judge it as a book. I probably would have loved this back in the day when I was on this reading level.

It was much darker than the original BSC. Maggie is struggling with her workaholic dad, her alcoholic mom, a fundraiser, band practice, boys and a job. It's a lot for a girl, especially a 13-year-old. She also thinks she's fat and everything would be so much better if she could lose five pounds.

It was a better portrayal of an eating disorder than I thought it'd be, but it still wrapped up quickly and easily. Of course, there is another book about Maggie in the series, so maybe it's covered there.

What I had issues with most was the freedom that a 13-year-old girl was given. She was in a band? She went on dates with guys who could drive? And how did she just get a new job without a work permit? She had a midnight curfew? It was completely unrealistic and, if I had been 13 myself, would have made me feel like a loser because I didn't get those freedoms.

[Amanda Del Brocco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like this was tied up in too neat of a bow for a story about anorexia.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get that the idea is to make teenagers understand that they're not alone in the way they feel. This book just kind of irked though. Maggie got over her eating disorder pretty quick. "oh noes, I said the same thing as my mom. I guess I do have a problem. no more dieting for me..." Whatever.

(oh and nothing like making me feel like a fat ass with her 100# comments)

[Cheyanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book, in my opinion, in the whole series. Maggie is crashing and it's beautifully disastrous and I love the emotion within this book.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never read this one as a kid, and I'm not sure why I didn't? I guess I was sort of phasing out of this reading age by then and moving on to other things. In the first book featuring Maggie it did hint at her weight loss issues and a possible eating disorder. I did read the second Amalia book, where this is talked about a LOT, so it wasn't a surprise. Still it did make it rather hard to read. Ouch.

This book delved a lot more into her family life, and how dysfunctional it truly was. Her mother has a hardcore drinking problem, and is shirking her responsibilities off on 13 year old Maggie. Her father, who isn't parent of the year either and piles too much onto this kids shoulders, is the only one in the house who seems to notice or care that she's not eating right. Well, besides the maid, Pilar. That's pretty sad.

It was nice to see her relationship with her little brother Zeke though! It was a bright spot in this pretty sad story. I need to read the third journal of Maggie's now, to find out if she started to get well or not.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intense. Maggie struggles with anorexia, and as a diary, this book dives right into the experience, including how it made her really irritable and tired.

She does get therapy in her third diary; this one ends just as she realizes she needs help. I like to think that if it were published today, it would include some of that information within the book 2 text, so that readers who never bother with book 3 will see it.

Also, Zeke is such a sweetie. Love that kid.

TW: eating disorder

[Avery Talks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the most painfully accurate book I've ever read about suffering with an eating disorder and while it definitely needs a huge trigger warning for the subject I'm grateful to our kind and compassionate stream community that sat with me on live and helped create a safe community space to cover this difficult topic. Our channel has the best community on the internet. 💛

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I feel sorry for Maggie but I'm also so frustrated by this book and the other characters in it. This one was a difficult read, but I am intrigued by the series and the deeper dive into social issues. That said, if anyone else is reading it along with the BSC books...I don't think it's integral to that series, or necessary to read as part of it.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Give a pretty good view of what an active eating disorder is like.

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/califo...

[Meg GlitteryOtters · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this series, love this book, love Maggie.

[Michaela · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, made me extremely uncomfortable to read

[Ashley Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor Maggie 😣

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you get past the fact that Dawn is in this series and even has her own books despite being an ungrateful brat with no issues it's good to be back into a storyline. I'm glad I didn't read these as a kid in a way I probably would've sided with Dawn. This book sees Maggie's perfect world and perfect family crumbling. Maggie is showing signs of anorexia, her mother is an alcoholic and her father works too much. Her poor brother Zeke is the only one without some issue and my heart broke for him. Zeke is shipped off to a tennis camp despite wanting to stay with his family probably because he's worried sick about all of them. Maggie leaves her job helping her dad and works for an animal shelter while helping her mom plan a benefit for the shelter. Much like the previous book it all comes to a head in the final few pages. Maggie's new boss Piper attempts to confront her about her eating habits which leads Maggie to fear that she's turning into her mom. One uses food the other booze but she isn't quite ready to admit there is something wrong with her still calling it a little problem. After the benefit her drunk mother breaks an angel statue and Maggie breaks down as that statue meant a lot to her. There are many touching moments here between Maggie and her brother as they talk about their parents and offer each other comfort and promise to keep in touch. Poor Maggie and Zeke. This is exactly why Dawn should only be in here as a secondary character. She literally brings nothing to the table but her whining selfishness. Everyone has a gripping story, Sunny, her dying mother and distant father, Maggie an eating disorder, workaholic father and alcoholic mother, Amalia a crazy ex boyfriend and Ducky most likely a closeted gay man and an old close friend with severe depression. Dawn? Her stepmother had a baby and her house in Stoneybrook burns down at some point in this series. Maybe that's her third diary? Anyway rant over. I still love the non Dawn books in this series and look forward to catching up with Amalia next.

[Kiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maggie, Diary Two is basically a sucker punch of a downward spiral. Maggie’s anxiety has always been portrayed realistically, but now she’s into the realm of anorexia, which takes things to a far more specific place. I’ve always been a foodie, so reading the passages where Maggie doesn’t eat for days or considers three chips to be a meal is actually really painful. The book definitely charts how small self-criticism can turn into something far more severe; her ultimate exhaustion and irritation feel inevitable, as does her lashing out at people who express concern or think that she has a problem. Maggie, Diary Two is basically an exercise in downward spiraling, and it is so devastating to read all her self-loathing and misery. Of all the California Diaries books, this one might have the biggest downer of an ending.

This book isn’t all doom and gloom (though it’s pretty bleak): there are signs that Maggie has a support system, and I especially like the way that her relationship with her brother, Zeke, is portrayed—their final conversation might be one of the book’s only warm moments.

Maggie, Diary Two is nothing if not realistic in its channeling of an insecure, anxious teenager beginning to crack under pressure. It’s so realistic that it’s impressive, but also so realistic that it’s quite grim because it’s so close to home. I like Maggie’s narration a lot, but this is a pretty uncomfortable installment to read.

3.25 stars.

[Lorien · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book...was painful to read. Reading someone destroy themselves is so hard to read. And it's so hard because it's so REAL. Maggie has anorexia, where she starved herself to lose weight, regardless of the fact she was a size 6 or 8 to begin with, which is petite. Very petite. And then to go to a size 2...

This book is Maggie losing weight to deal with her broken family that refuses to admit it's broken. The climax comes when everyone finally admits there are a lot of problems, and at the very end fo that, Maggie releases she has one too. I hope to see her healthy and ready to face her darkest self, and then see the light in her last journal.

Once I find somewhere to buy it.

(I did skip about 26 or so pages, I just couldn't take it).

[705luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

All during this book i wanted to scream at Maggie because she kept on talking about how she is too fat when i know she is not. Maggie starves herself because of a desiese she has known as Anorexia. This book was probably my least favorite book in the series because although this is a serious problem in the world having no one do something about it, made me continousley scream at Maggie in my head.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I read this already and it made absolutely no impact on me. I remember reading Sunny’s third diary. Ho boy.

Maggie flirts with anorexia but realizes that her relationship with food is the becoming the same as her mom’s relationship with alcohol.

She also gets a full time internship at a pet shelter even though she’s thirteen. They must be desperate for volunteers.

And her parents still suck.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay It got really annoying with Maggie saying all the time that she is fat. (which she is not)

I did like the California Diaries series, but several of the books including this one were kind of annoying, or more like severly annoying. This one was one of the more annoying books in this series but I guess the good books come with the bad books.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoa. This book is all about weight problems and Maggie's depression. I can see how she'd come to the point where she is, but it was not a pleasant read. But then she seemed to "fix" herself at the end which I feel is a poor ending as I do not think it's all that realistic.

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in grade 7, I enjoyed it very much, loved reading about Maggie's life.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this whole series of books. (I'm a sucker for books written as diaries).

[Destiny_roundtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Think This Book Is Great So Far....Cant Wait To Read More!!!!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maggie became anorexic in this one, it was written very well.